Starting a business in Pathfinder
To a new future Who doesn't want to start their own business when they come upon some land through honest work...... or a drink game. This is a step by step guild using existing pathfinder rules and formulas created by DM Mickenzie (2015) This process is at your DMs discretion only! So please ask them before you continue. Step 1: Securing a location. Every great business needs a location to get it off the ground and like any business in real life its all about location location location. The location you pick will determine the type of attention you get from your customers. Pick somewhere in the middle of nowhere may be cheap but you'll get little to no customers. Pick somewhere like the Coins district in Absalom may be expensive but it has the highest turn out. Here is a list of examples of price increase you will find on your shop. (if you won the property ignore this). This price increase is calculated from the size of your property *see final bill step* What category your location falls into is at your DMs discretion. * Absalom (or other large cities) - Royal Area - Increase 50% (this is a tough spot to get, role play and DM approval needed to set up in these districts) * Absalom (or other large cities) - Merchant Area - Increase 20% * Absalom (or other large cities) - Residential Area - Increase 15% * Small but still popular villages - Increase 5% * Middle of no where - Increase 0% Step 2: Securing a building Once you know where you want to be, the next step is purchasing the building you will be setting up in. Here is a link to the making your own building in pathfinder: Pathfinder Rooms Finding this building can happen in a few ways: # You already have the property (either cleared or needing to be cleared *see instructions in construction) and you want to build your own place. # You can look for already existing property with the house that has all the rooms you desire allowing the DM to roll a dice to see how lucky you are in finding it. (less chance of doing so) # You don't care what the house has in it, you just want a store front or a smiting room, again allow the DM to roll your luck, this time with a higher chance of finding one with less specifics in option 2. Using the Link above on Pathfinder Rooms, find the final price and material cost of the building. All of this will be explained in the Final Bill Step but you need: # Total square feet of the building (first floor only, since the second floor will be the the same or less) # Total labor cost (include magic) # Total goods cost # Total days needed # For simplicity we will be ignoring influence Step 3: The Final Bill Taking all the things you have calculated follow the formula below to find the final cost of everything. This is all calculated with gold pieces. # (total amount of goods) x 10gp = (cost of goods) # (cost of goods) + (cost of labor) = (building cost) # (first floor total squares) x 100 = (property value) # (property value) x (property increase *found in step 1: securing location) = (cost of property increase) # (building cost) + (cost of property increase) = (final bill) # (total days needed) = (total days needed) If the amount of days is to long to wait you can multiply your labor cost by two and cut you days needed in half. This can be done as many times as your wallet can hold out. Step 4: Instructions in construction Now to start building. If your property already has an old building on it (if stated by the DM) that you wish to tare down in order to build your dream home additional labor is needed. to calculate this simply take your first floor total squares and multiply that by 10 to get the cost in gold pieces. Once cleared you may begin building. This process does not require you to be there so if adventuring is desired please do so. If you were to die while in construction, the building is completed and the city collects it for auction later down the road unless other wise stated in a will by the owner before departure on the adventure. The building will take the amount of days required to build. You may return to the site at any time to put more money down to increase building speed. Follow the formula below if desired. (total days needed) / (total labor) = (labor per day) x (days left) = (labor cost left) x 2 = cutting days needed in half Step 5: Making some Dough The hardest part is over and you now have a building of your own, maybe complete with your own upstairs penthouse and rooms filled with endless pools Or maybe just a store front with a hammock in the outdoor garden. Either or your place is done and you can start on your business. There are many types of businesses. From making sandwiches or building armor for adventures to even conducting kendo classes and cutting people's hair. You could make almost any business possible with Pathfinder and of course at your DMs discretion. Make sure you have the rooms in your building that are necessary for your business. Some trades need multiple rooms like making sandwiches. For that you need a kitchen and a dining area. Others need only one room, like a forge for smiting. Either way make sure you have the rooms needed and your DM approves. One building can have multiple businesses under it's roof but do require the appropriate amount of rooms to themselves. No squeezing five businesses into one common room. Tisk Tisk. Labor:'' ' You may or may not run the business on your own. However to make any money if you were to run it you would have to be there for a whole week and work every day or have the DM role play the few days you are there. The easiest way to not do this is to hire someone to do it for you. There is a page full of people to hire on the Pathfinder Manager Page. Pick the one that suits your business the best and keep note of their labor cost. '''Income: Now all your hard work will pay off, quite literally. Below is a formula for your profit along with a list of detailed explanations for some of the variables. This formula is for profit made in a week. You may roll this formula (at the DMs discretion) once per game section and one additional time per section if a second week is role played in game time. Formula: (skill outcome) x (city/location modifier) x .666 (materials) x (% of customers) = $$$$$ - (weekly labor cost for manager) Skill Roll Chart: Below is a chart to calculate the quality of made products that week. If you are doing this yourself or have a cohort doing such, it is simply their skill role. New Skills maybe added under crafting or profession section if you have a skill in sandwich making, being a barber or teaching something like kendo. If you are hiring someone using the Manager Page listed above the persons skill modifier is stuck at 10. For the formula you may role a D20 for yourself, your cohort or the manager to find their quality on the chart. City/location Modifier: 'This comes from the location you choose to put your building. There are five outcomes, remember step 1: securing location. * Mod.= 10,000 is the highest, this can be found in the royal district of large cities. However there is a condition. Your skill outcome must be a 8 or drop to the next category below. * Mod.= 1,000 can be found in merchant districts of large cities. * Mod.= 100 can be found in residential districts of large cities. * Mod.= 10 can be found in popular small villages. * Mod.= 1 is the lowest and can be found in the middle of nowhere. '''Materials: '''This portion of the formula simply takes away 1/3rd the profit in order to have the materials to make the items or preform the acts of your business. You may argue that your business does not need materials but DMs must think about this fully. Even a teacher teaching kendo class needs straw practice manikins or wooden swords. There is a way to get out of paying for materials. Some professions like armor making or sandwich making can have materials acquired from adventuring. Things like dragon scales and dragon meat can be used as materials for these two examples. If you have someone on your team that is a skilled butcher many items can be acquired in this way. These are just two examples, the rest is up to good role play and your DM. The DM also decides how many weeks (or formulas) the items you acquired are good for. *Make sure to write this down and subtract when used '''Customers: '''This is determined by the DM rolling a percent dice (D100). This is turned into a percent by placing a decimal in front of the number during calculation. Basically it tells you how many people out of 100 showed up to your shop that week. The dice is pretty accurate and can reflect situation happening in game. '$$$$$: This is an easy one, it's simply the amount of money you have made that week, congratulations! Labor for Manager: If you have decided to hirer a manager from the Pathfinder Page listed above, this is where you subtract their labor. Make sure to multiply the labor on the Pathfinder page by 7 for the week. Step 6: You made it Good job for making it through this page. Shout out to the KPH and Minion for inspiring this make-over of the once terrible system in Pazio's Pathfinder. Please let me know if anything is confusing in the comments and I'll go through the page and try to elaborate. Category:Rules and FAQs